On The Farm

I can’t remember arriving on the farm. Dr. King drove to our house from the nearby community of Frankston for my arrival, as he did for hundreds of other families. He was either there for my birthing or arrived shortly thereafter. Life on the farm would never be the same for my mom and dad. Being the youngest, I probably got away with more things than my older brother or sister. Their version of my childhood is that Mom and Dad were more lenient and did not discipline me as they were disciplined. I can’t compare, since I didn’t witness them as youngsters. My arrival did complicate things for both of them. My brother had been the only boy in the family and my sister had been the youngest child, so maybe I was born with the special gift of complicating people’s lives. Never-the-less, I arrived on the farm.

Life on the farm included Dad raising cattle and growing corn, cotton and vegetables. He sold the cotton to the local gin in Athens. Corn was raised to feed the cattle, chickens and mules. Mules were used to plow the land to raise vegetables to sell at the local market. These included sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peas, melons and cantaloupes. The largest amount of land I remember planting for any vegetable crop was 5-6 acres. These, along with cotton were cash crops. One year we even raised castor beans. The crops did not come in at the same time, so the work, as well as the cash, was distributed over several months. Sometimes the crops did not make, so there was no cash. That happened on more than one occasion.

Mom and Dad normally raised a home garden that included tomatoes, Irish potatoes, onions, squash, English peas, sweet corn, cabbages, beets, radishes, turnips, spinach, a variety of field peas, and green beans. There was also an orchard with peaches, pears, plums and berries. We ate well from the garden during the spring and summer. Mother preserved jams and jellies and canned vegetables from the garden. We could survive the winter on preserved food plus necessities that Dad purchased at the Baxter store. Dad used his “charge card” for weekly purchases. During those days the store owners often had a charge system of a 4 by 6 inch pad for each customer, with their name on the outside of the cream colored cover. The owner of the store would pull out the box of charge books, find the correct one and write what Dad purchased, the amount and the date. It was all on the honor system and worked very well.

On the farm there was seldom any money to speak of, but we always ate well and there was plenty of love. I never questioned whether or not my parents loved me. They always showed it in so many ways. We were richly blessed to have the parents that we had. In 1 Corinthians 13:8, I read that “Love never fails.” We may have had crop failures on the farm, but we never had a crop failure of love in the home. Life was good on the farm.